Much has changed in the world of publishing and communication since the release of TeX in 1982. TeX was rapidly adopted by mathematicians and physicists as a much-loved document preparation system, although with a steep learning curve. It is also used in other specialist areas, such as technical documentation and database publishing.
Since the 1990's, computer power and networking have grown many times, as has the use of computers. People are looking to the internet, particularly the Web, for information, services and solutions. Although TeX remains mainstream for mathematical content, as open-source software it has slipped, and its web presence is weak. TeX-related websites are somewhat dated and developer communities isolated, compared to the organizations that were accepted. In contrast, the PDF (or portable document format) system is very popular and growing in popularity. Many users, including users who are not technically proficient, have computers that include PDF readers, so that one user can provide other users with a PDF document and expect that those other users will be able to review it.